Just as Zero thought the outside world was far from peaceful. While it was no time for a full-scale war, there were still small fights between humans and Devils happening everywhere. As the year came to an end, the conflict between the two species grew, which seemed to be inevitably heading toward war.
If history has taught us something, it was that humans and Devils could never live in peace together.
With the year ending, the final year students at Ace Academy had also graduated. The guilds were fiercely fighting to recruit Ace Academy students more than in previous years.
This was because of the Devil’s invasion. While people condemned and criticized Ace Academy for letting such an incident happen, one cannot deny that the students that survived were far more talented.
Having experienced such dangerous attacks from the Devil and still wanting to be an explorer also showed that they were brave enough to not let one setback stop them. This was important for the guild’s recruitment as the war between Devil and Human seemed to be inevitable.
When war happens, guilds across the country will also have to send their members to the battlefield. Having people already experienced fighting with the devil was a big advantage at the time.
So, there was no shortage of people looking to recruit students from Ace Academy.
While Ace Academy third-year students were busy choosing the guild to enter, other-year students were getting ready to take the final exam.
Ace Academy had no time to prepare anything special because of how busy they were dealing with the aftermath of the Devil Invasion and preparing to make countermeasures against similar attacks.
Therefore, the exam was similar to what was on their mid-term exams. It began with the theory exam, followed by the practical exam which involved defeating the monsters created by the Staff Of Illusion.
However, the strength of the monster had been increased by two ranks compared to mid-term and there was even the appearance of Rank-B monsters in the exam.
But having experienced all kinds of attacks from Devil Contractors and Devils, first-year students did not panic and came up with lots of countermeasures. Along with that, they had Hiro, Zion, Lisa, and Sylvia who could easily defeat them together.
Therefore, the practical exam was relatively easy for first-year students, especially for the Alpha class which included Hiro and his crew.
Even the professors marking them were impressed by the performance shown by the first-year students. First-year students already showed strength and experience equal to that of third-year students.
“Golden Generation!”
That was what they could think when seeing monsters like Hiro and Zion who could handle Rank-C + monsters by themselves. Other students were also not bad with some even defeating a Rank-C + monster after forming a team of 5 students.
While it didn’t look impressive compared to Hiro and Zion, one should know that the highest rank of monster that third-year students could defeat was also Rank-C +. As for first-years themselves, in previous years the most that a student could handle was a Rank D- monster.
And also compared to other generations, Ace Academy was one of the strongest. Just looking at the last Tournament Of Academies, they knew that Ace Academy first-year students were far stronger than other school students.
Professors were now looking forward to the next Tournament Of Academies which they would probably dominate. They would also undoubtedly forget the criticism they receive and the bad reputation they have when they display the talent that they nurtured.
Thinking that professors calculated the ranking of the exam. From the first year, obviously, Hiro came first, and with slightly fewer points was Zion followed by Sylvia and Lisa. The one who managed to grab the position right after that group was Misha who was only one point below Lisa.
This was a surprise since Misha’s ranking in the entrance exam was low, and her mid-term rank was not noteworthy, not even at the Top-20 of the first-year rankings. Yet in the final exam, she managed to get fifth place in the entire first year, showing a ridiculous growth speed that was second to none, perhaps, only second to zero in terms of growth speed.
Even so, not many were surprised by her outcome after her performance at the Tournament Of Academies. Misha already had defeated a Top-10 student from third-year and even in the Tournament Of Academia, she was ranked in the Top 100 with power almost on par with Sylvia.
The professors finished ranking them and announced the results as soon as they were done. The Top-10 students were awarded by the Ace Academy with Rank-B and Rank-A Artifacts to the delight of the students.
Then it was the start of the winter holiday. The students went back to their homes to spend their time with their families and some went on vacation with their friends.
In the meantime, Hiro and his gang had been running around conquering dungeons one by one, each one different from the previous one.
The winter holidays only provided more time for them to run more dungeons. In addition to Hiro’s tenacity to conquer dungeons, everyone showed the same determination. While professors and other students praised their strength, to them it was not satisfactory.
They fought with Rank-A devils and knew how powerless they were. Defeating Rank-C + monsters was nothing to be happy about. The goals that they set were far higher than others and they were more than determined to reach their goal.
With each dungeon they conquer, they are able to grow stronger and make fewer mistakes while dealing with the same monsters. Their cooperation also increased as they became more aware of each other’s strengths.
Then they were greeted by the new year. With the start of the year, Ace Academy was soon to start taking entrance exams. Ace Academy’s entrance exams are normally administered in late January, but they had to take them early in case of any unforeseen circumstances.
With how busy they were, and the conflict with devils increasing day by day, Ace Academy made the decision to conduct entrance exams when they were less occupied. They didn’t know how busy they would be in late January and decided to conduct the exam early.
This led to the creation of an interesting event in early January. Being able to witness talent taking the exam for Ace Academy was a great experience for people and good news material for the media. Every year they would go to Ace Academy to find the strongest person and establish all kinds of information about that.
So, coming first place in the entrance exam was kind of like turning yourself into a famous person that would be envied by millions of people. Now that people are paying closer attention to Ace Academy because of the Devil Invasion, the media is getting ready to make a profit from this entrance exam.
Hiro normally would not show interest in such an event but since his sister was participating, he needed to be there. He knew how annoying the journalist would get if his sister were to come first.
So in order to watch over her he came along with his friends. Though he said there was no need for them to accompany him, they wanted to come and see how Hiro’s sister would perform.
“Shh… Alright!”
Hiro had to give in and came with his group to witness Yui Ernest’s performance. They wanted to quietly watch her and see whether her talent was as ridiculous as her brother’s.
However, with how famous they were, there was no way that they would be able to watch in peace. The moment they came over to the place where the selection was shown, many journalists recognized them and started swarming around them.
Hiro was already known by many people and some even hailed him as the savior of humanity. And the fame of others was also no less.
Zion and Lisa are the heirs of the Platinum guild’s guildmaster and Sylvia is the daughter of one of the executives of The Authority. They were also renowned for their talent, which was already enough to make them famous.
They were asked a lot of questions about the Devil’s invasion and the reason they came here. They also asked them about the rising conflict between humans and the devil. Although young, journalists knew that in a few years, they would be the ones making a big splash on the battlefield between devil and human.
They only stopped pestering them when the entrance exam began. They could interview them again after the entrance exam but if they missed anything interesting from the entrance exam then it would be a big loss for their company.
They were mainly sent there to get good new material from the Entrance exam and if they missed them then their boss might fire them.
So, without further ado, everyone started focusing on the participants who were slowly making their way towards the monsters.